IJJ Fellows’ Projects
2009 Ethnic Media Program on Environmental Justice Reporting
Supported by McCormick Foundation

HUASCAR ROBLES wrote about the dumping of coal ash near Puerto Rican neighborhoods, which exposed the residents to potentially harmful health effects.

• Read Huáscar Robles’ Story Behind the Story about his IJJ project.
• Ashes to Ashes: Puerto Rico's Coal Combustion Problem
  

DEVIN ROBINS reported and produced a report for PRI’s “Living on Earth” on four mothers, all activists against environmental injustice in one of nation’s poorest regions.

• Read Devin Robins’ Story Behind the Story
• Listen to her report: “Rural Rabble Rousing”

PHOEBE CONNELLY profiled Chicago food justice activist LaDonna Redmond.

• Read Phoebe Connelly’s Story Behind the Story.
• Food Justice! No Peas?: LaDonna Redmond’s on a quest to put fresh, healthy foods in Chicago’s South Side.

BRENTIN MOCK explored the issues surrounding the polluted Anacostia River and its health effects on the neighboring D.C. neighborhood.

• Read Brentin Mock’s Story Behind the Story.
• Something in the Water: D.C.’s Anacostia neighborhood struggles with the double burden of high unemployment and environmental degradation. Can green stimulus efforts offer lasting change?
  

EDWIN BUGGAGE wrote about post-Katrina blight in New Orleans and health effects on residents returning to the city.

• New Orleans: A Toxic City?
  

JULIO CESAR ORTIZ produced a four-part series, aired on KMEX, the Univision station in Los Angeles, focusing on the economic struggles of independent truckers and the effects on air pollution from their poorly maintained vehicles.

• Read Julio César Ortiz’ Story Behind the Story.
• View four-part KMEX series, Sudor Sobre El Asfalto -- Sweat on the Asphalt.
  • Stories 1 and 2:
    • The ability of independent truckers to sustain their families poses an emotional and almost impossible daily challenge for more than 17,000 truck drivers who haul cargo from the Los Angeles and Long Beach ports.
    • The old and mechanically failing trucks driven by independent truckers contribute to greater air pollution conditions, affecting neighborhoods and the drivers’ own family members.
  • Stories 3 and 4
    • The emotional dilemma of an independent truck driver whose decision to drive his unreliable truck for long hours to make a living might cost him his family.
    • At the end of the road for a truck driver, retirement or disability benefits are nonexistent. Physical impediments or age place them in socio-economic conditions below what they have worked for all their lives. 

KARI LYDERSEN covered environmental justice issues in Louisiana for The Washington Post and ColorLines magazine.

• Read Kari Lydersen’s Story Behind the Story.
• Gulf Waters Imperil Tribes' Way of Life In Louisiana Bayous: As Wetlands Shrink, Oil and Gas Jobs Replace Farming, Fishing and Trapping
• Landfill Worries Cloud Hope for New Orleans Gardens (Story about New Orleans East Vietnamese urban farm)
• The Cultural Impact of Eroding Wetlands: Louisiana tribes cling to traditions as oil and gas industries take their land
  
• Battling the Chef Menteur Landfill
• The landfill story was picked up by New American Media and published by the Louisiana Weekly: Vietnamese community continues landfill battle
• Related stories by KARI LYDERSEN on railroads and rail yards that were informed by the IJJ fellowship program:
  Low-emission locomotives may boost public health
• Dirty Secret: Pollution from rail yard emissions in the Chicago area plagues the health of nearby residents
  
  

TALIA WHYTE produced multi-media stories on the quality of food available in communities of color.

• Read Talia Whyte’s Story Behind the Story.
• 'Something green is growing here': In Dorchester, residents of color take urban farming to new heights
  
• Photo Slide Show: Something Green is Growing Here
• Eating Green: Food and Environmental Justice in Boston (Video series for WGBH Boston --PBS affliate)
  • Food Justice (Eating Green - part 1 of 3)
  • The Food Problem (Eating Green - part 2 of 3)
  • Black and Meatless - Sort of... (Eating Green - part 3 of 3)
• Other stories related to food justice and environmental justice by TALIA WHYTE:
  • Gross inequality in access to healthy food
  • Green jobs for ex-felons
  • As green goes global, minorities get in game
  • On-site recycling in Rox a Hub public housing first
  • Service day spurs 'green' moves for Rox residents